All of those countries who choose to “engage” with Cuba’s corrupt and repressive dictatorship claim there are fruits to that engagement. What they don’t mention is that the only “fruit” blossoming from that engagement is almost 2-billion dollars in cold hard cash for the apartheid Castro regime during the last year alone. The same year the Castro dictatorship increased their repression to historic levels.

But hey, let’s not allow pesky reality to interfere with the widely-held notion that nothing topples a violent and oppressive regime quicker than drowning them in billions of dollars.

According to the Cuba’s Office of National Statistics and Information, Cuba saw 1.804 billion dollars in revenue generated from international tourism in the past year. The total revenue shows an increase of 1.9% over 2012.